


Shake It Out

by tricksterity



Series: Ceremonials [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Established Relationship, Ginny finds out, M/M, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-18
Updated: 2015-11-18
Packaged: 2018-05-02 07:49:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5240405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tricksterity/pseuds/tricksterity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Malfoy may have been genuinely trying to become a better person and to shuck the beliefs that his pureblood family had instilled in him from birth, but that didn’t mean that Ginny suddenly trusted him when he just happened to leave the Great Hall at the same time as Harry and walk off in the same direction as him. They were no longer adversaries, insulting and hexing each other at every possible opportunity, in fact they barely spoke, but Ginny was still concerned, and didn’t believe that it was just coincidence that Malfoy was seemingly following Harry.</i>
</p><p>How Ginny found out about Harry and Draco.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shake It Out

* * *

 

 

“I’ll see you later, okay?” Harry said suddenly, gulping down the last of his coffee as he stood up. Ron made some vague affirmative, still far too tired and interested in only his bacon, and Hermione already had her head buried in her books and it wasn’t even nine a.m. yet. Ginny grabbed Harry’s hand and pulled him back down so she could deliver a kiss to his cheek, and then allowed him to go on his way. Since they’d broken up it hadn’t been awkward or uncomfortable or distanced or anything that Ginny feared their relationship would be – they’d settled comfortably into the same relationship they’d always had, just with less kissing.

 

Ginny was content to let Harry go and do whatever he needed to, she wasn’t his keeper, and these days not everyone needed a reason for going off and having some time alone, least of all Harry. After everything he’d been through, she knew that sometimes he just needed some time alone to reflect. That, and Hermione’s constant muttering as she read through her NEWT textbook was already starting to grate on Ginny’s nerves.

 

“’Mione, could you please save the studying for when we’re actually awake?” Ginny sighed, pushing her fingers to her temples to alleviate the stress headache that was starting to build. Hermione flushed and looked a little guilty as she shut her book and put it next to her on the table.

 

Ginny looked up in time to see Harry sweep out of the Great Hall, and it didn’t escape her notice that quite a few students from the other houses watched him leave, and she chuckled to herself. She would readily admit that she missed being with Harry, but it was still funny to watch the younger students fawn over Harry, not for his fame but simply for how damn attractive he’d gotten now that he’d grown his hair out, especially when he tied it up in a messy bun like he had now. He didn’t even notice it, but honestly, Harry was as observant as a brick wall.

 

With his long hair, McGonagall had told Harry at the beginning of term that he looked like Sirius Black and James Potter had been combined, and though Harry had flushed happily, he had also looked like he was about to cry.

 

She turned back to her porridge when she saw a flash of white-blonde, and looked up to see if it was Luna. It wasn’t, it was Draco Malfoy making his way out of the Great Hall, and turning to go in the same direction as Harry, and Ginny frowned. Malfoy was in her Muggle Studies class and she’d definitely noticed how he was changing, and though most of the time he got it wrong, he was making a genuine effort to reform his beliefs. She remembered the look of absolute shock on his face when their professor had explained to the class how Muggles had managed to reach the moon, without magic, _in 1969_. If Malfoy had still been thinking that magic was superior to technology then, he surely didn’t after that. No witch or wizard had ever made it to the moon.

 

Malfoy was genuinely trying to become a better person and to shuck the beliefs that his pureblood family had instilled in him from birth, but that didn’t mean that Ginny suddenly trusted him when he just happened to leave the Great Hall at the same time as Harry and walk off in the same direction as him. They were no longer adversaries, insulting and hexing each other at every possible opportunity, in fact they barely spoke, but Ginny was still concerned, and didn’t believe that it was just coincidence that Malfoy was seemingly following Harry.

 

“Back soon, just need to use the loo,” Ginny explained quickly, picking up the last half slice of her toast as she left. Ron, again, made a vague grunting noise as he continued to plow his way through his bacon, and Hermione had a lovesick expression in her eyes as she ruffled his hair.

 

Ginny hurried her way out of the Great Hall and turned left, just catching Malfoy’s blonde hair at the end of the corridor. She had to jog to make sure she didn’t stay behind, and followed Malfoy through the castle, up a few floors to the fourth floor, specifically the northwest side which didn’t hold much but abandoned classrooms these days. What was he up to? She ducked behind a statue as Malfoy looked both ways down the corridor, and then entered one of the classrooms, shutting the door firmly behind him.

 

With a frown, Ginny headed over to the door and crouched down, fishing out one of her brothers’ extendable ears out of her pocket, putting one end in her ear as she shoved the other under the door. She could immediately tell that there were two people in the room from the footsteps, and placed her hand on her wand just in case she had to break up some sort of fight between the two of them. She wasn’t even sure that it was Harry, but Draco alone in an abandoned classroom with anyone could only spell trouble.

 

“You know, for someone who wanted to keep this a secret, you’re being awfully unsubtle about it all,” sighed a voice that Ginny could recognise in her sleep – it was Harry.

 

“Most people just ignore me these days anyway,” Malfoy replied rather congenially. It didn’t sound like they were about to get into a fight, and Ginny lowered her hand from her wand.

 

“Still doesn’t mean that nobody’s going to notice you _following me out of the Great Hall_. Honestly, Draco, they probably think that you’re coming to murder me,” Harry sighed, and Ginny’s eyebrows flew up at the use of Malfoy’s first name. Were they friends now, and keeping it a secret? That seemed a little… overdramatic, even for the Chosen One and the former Slytherin prince.

 

“I wouldn’t do anything of the sort,” Malfoy replied, sounding overly offended, and Harry started to laugh. There was a sudden grunt and the scraping of a desk along the floor that indicated that Harry had probably just pushed himself up to sit on one of the desks, a worrying habit that he’d recently gotten into. Ginny could see all of the professors’ eyes twitching whenever Harry did that during class, but they couldn’t exactly tell off the savior of the Wizarding World for sitting on a desk. The desks probably all still existed due to him.

 

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Harry sighed. “The last eight years have all been my imagination.”

 

“In my defense, I _was_ an arse,” Malfoy replied, and Harry laughed in the way that Ginny knew meant he was tipping his head back and _really_ laughing. He must trust Malfoy a lot to laugh like that around him, but that didn’t mean that Ginny was just about to up and leave the two of them alone, even though she knew that Harry could handle himself.

 

“Yeah, laugh it up,” Malfoy groused, feet shuffling along the floor, and Harry made a pleased hum. There was silence for a few moments, for so long that Ginny thought that her extendable ear had broken, before Harry broke the silence with a quiet whisper.

 

“I’m just… I had to get away from everyone for a bit. They’re all studying so hard, and I just… I still don’t even know what I want to do, what I want to be,” Harry admitted quietly. Harry had spoken of this to Ginny a while back when term had first started and Hermione had pointed out to Ron that Harry didn’t want to be an auror anymore. It made sense to Ginny – Harry had lived through so much fighting that he never wanted to see it again. But now that him being the Chosen One was no longer relevant considering that Voldemort was dead, what did Harry do with himself?

 

Ginny knew that Harry wasn’t happy like everyone else was. Everyone else couldn’t believe that the war was over, that Voldemort was gone, that they were free to live their lives without fear and a dark threat looming over all of them. Harry, however… all he’d ever done was fight Voldemort, and now he was lost, like a compass with no north. Ginny knew that some days Harry just went through the motions and went to classes, wrote assignments, studied, ate, slept, but he didn’t feel any of it and that he wasn’t really there. She was worried about him, but knew that once he found a purpose again he’d bounce back. In the mean time she just made sure that she was there for him when he needed a shoulder, made sure he ate enough, snuck into the eighth year dorms and braided his hair on the nights when all he could do was sit and stare blankly at a wall and let him know that she was there for him.

 

It probably didn’t help that he didn’t have Quidditch to look forward to anymore – being Seeker and Captain would’ve taken far too much out of the eighth years with NEWTs. She didn’t know how Oliver Wood had done it. Mind you, he had gone pretty loco towards the end of his seventh year, so she wasn’t sure that really counted. She was barely handling it herself, even though she was doing a strange amalgamation of sixth and seventh year classes, considering that the Carrows didn't really let her study for her OWLs.

 

“Well, what do you like?” Malfoy asked, breaking Ginny out of her thoughts. Her thighs were aching from being crouched on the ground for so long, and she wondered what it would look like if someone rounded the corner and saw her squatting there, ear pressed to the door.

 

“What d’you mean, what do I like?” Harry replied, and Ginny sighed perfectly in time with Malfoy.

 

“It’s not a difficult question, Potter,” Malfoy replied, tone indicating that he thought Harry was a little thick. “What do you enjoy, what are your hobbies? Nobody goes for a job that they don’t like or don’t find interesting. Granger’s going into Magical Law Enforcement because she believes that everyone deserves to be equal and have a second chance, like her goddamn SPEW fiasco. Weasley’s going into auror training because he found something he was good at during the war and because the Minister asked for him. Thomas is going into the tattooing business because he’s the best artist Hogwarts has seen in years. Longbottom’s doing Herbology because only Merlin knows if there’s anything else he’s actually good at-“

 

“Hey!”

 

“-and your ex-girlfriend’s probably going to join a Quidditch team, because she should’ve been Captain in place of you in sixth year and you _know_ it,” Malfoy finished, and Ginny nearly smacked her head on the wall with how much she jolted back in shock. She didn’t think Malfoy knew that much about them all or even cared to know that much, though now that they all shared the eighth year dorms together it made sense that they learned more about each other than when they were on opposite ends of the castle.

 

“Yes, and Zabini’s going into potion-making and Parkinson’s rearing to join the Daily Prophet,” Harry sighed, like they’d had this conversation hundreds of times. “You don’t need to rub in the fact that everyone’s got their life sorted out except for me.”

 

Malfoy sighed in the frustrated way that Ginny recognised that they all did whenever Harry was being particularly stubborn and thick about something.

 

“What I’m saying is that they are all doing something they love – Blaise is good at Potions and Pansy loves nothing more than gossip and spreading it,” Malfoy explained. “So what do you like? What do you enjoy? What would you devote your extra time to? What would you stay up reading about at night, what would you rant about for hours on end, what would you be happy to spend the rest of your life doing? It could be anything.”

 

“What I’d be happy to spend the rest of my life doing?” Harry teased, innuendo laced in his voice, followed by a small noise of pain as Malfoy most likely smacked him upside the head.

 

“Head out of the gutter, Potter,” Malfoy sighed.

 

“Have you decided what you’re going to do?” Harry then segued.

 

“Curse-breaking,” Malfoy replied quietly. “I figure… I spent enough time drenching myself in the Dark Arts that I should work on getting rid of it in the world.” Both Harry and Ginny were quiet in the wake of Malfoy’s confession, and Ginny swallowed against the tears that wanted to well up in her eyes at the sheer self-hatred in Malfoy’s words.

 

“Draco…” Harry murmured.

 

“No, Harry, this isn’t about me. This discussion is about _you_ , so stop trying to side-track me by making me feel bad about myself. You didn’t answer my question,” Malfoy said sternly, reminding Ginny uncannily of Professor McGonagall.

 

“If I knew what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing, Draco, I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you,” Harry retorted.

 

“Well then use that brain of yours and _think_ ,” Malfoy replied. “We can always start with the process of elimination. You’re useless at Potions without Snape’s book, so don’t even think about joining Blaise-“

 

“Not that I’d want to.”

 

“-you’ve dropped Divination, and there aren’t really any careers in that anyway unless you’re a Seer. You’re useless at Herbology too, and Longbottom _will_ be devastated not to have you with him during his internship; you hate History of Magic, you’re alright at Charms and Transfiguratio-“

 

“Okay, Draco, I get it,” Harry huffed. “This isn’t helping.”

 

“Then tell me what you _do_ like, or I’ll keep insulting you,” Malfoy replied, and Ginny had to swallow back her chuckle. Malfoy really was quite the Slytherin when he wanted to be. She’d all but forgotten about the burning in her thighs and was leaning up mostly against the wall now.

 

“I…” Harry began, and then trailed off with a frustrated noise. “If there’s such a thing as being an auror without actually fighting for your life every day, I’d do it.” Malfoy was silent for a few moments.

 

“You’re an idiot,” Malfoy sighed. “Why don’t you train to become a DADA professor?”

 

“…I can do that?” Harry asked.

 

“Of course you can! It’s perfect, how the hell did we not think about this?” Malfoy exclaimed. “You don’t want to leave Hogwarts – now you don’t have do, internships are all done here, under the relevant professor. Merrythought is a temporary professor in the interim, but DADA internships aren’t as long as the Herbology or Potions ones, you could probably get it done within a year. You love teaching, remember the DA? You secretly taught students from all year levels to defend themselves and you did it _well_. I think without the DA, Hogwarts would’ve fallen much sooner.”

 

“Everyone expects so much more of me though,” Harry said. “They want me to be an auror or a hitwizard; I’ve even had someone owl me saying that I should run for Minister when I leave.”

 

“Fuck what everyone expects!” Draco replied rather passionately. “You don’t owe them shit, Harry. You saved the world and died trying, you deserve to do whatever the hell you want to be happy, and if that means you want to be a professor or run off to Magadascar to become a Magizoologist like Lovegood, you do it. Fuck what everyone else thinks. You _deserve_ to be happy.”

 

There was silence, then a muffled noise of surprise, and then something  that sounded suspiciously like kissing, and Ginny would know, because she’d kissed Harry Potter before, and knew all the little noises he made. There was a quiet groan on Malfoy’s end, and then an elastic snap that sounded a lot like one of Harry’s hair bands being broken by impatient fingers, and Ginny gently drew away from the door and put the extendable ear back into her pocket.

 

That sure explained a lot.

 

Ginny pushed her lips together to stop herself from smiling or outright giggling, and headed back down the hallway to the Great Hall. Tonight she’d pull Harry aside and give him a stern talking to about the fact that he didn’t tell her about his secret affair with Draco Malfoy, but for now, she’d let them have the time and space they needed.

 

Idly, she thought that Harry would be a great DADA professor.

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Because I fucking hate the idea that Harry would become an auror after all he's been through.
> 
> **If you liked my writing and you're interested in me writing something for you, click[HERE](http://tricksterity.tumblr.com/post/140544637431) for more information! **


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